Peppers gets good but not great money in Green Bay

A team’s view of a player almost always is revealed by what the team will pay him. The Packers will pay Julius Peppers a maximum of $30 million over three years.

That’s what Peppers’ agent, Carl Carey, told Josina Anderson of ESPN. But the devil always resides in details disseminated by agents before the official numbers are reported.

“Maximum” means there are escalators and/or incentives and/or per-game roster bonuses that require Peppers to achieve certain goals in order to get the money. Without knowing the goals, it’s impossible to know whether he’ll come close to the $10 million annual average.

Carey also tells Anderson that $7.5 million is guaranteed. As usual, the amount fully guaranteed at signing (versus the money guaranteed for injury only at signing) isn’t disclosed by the agent.

For 2014, Peppers will receive $8.5 million total. Based on the manner in which guys like Ross Tucker and Shaun King have assessed for Pro Football Talk on NBCSN the tape of Peppers’ recent performances, that’s probably a pretty good deal.

At a time when it’s tempting to compare the Peppers signing to the 1992 acquisition of Reggie White or the 2006 signing of Charles Woodson, the nostalgia comes more from the size of the name and the rarity of the transaction than from the actual impact the player will make on the field.

41 responses to “Peppers gets good but not great money in Green Bay”

A few years past his prime. However HALLELUJAH TED THOMPSON DISCOVERED FREE AGENCY!!! Did Ted finally turn on NFL Network and go “Wait what the Hell is this Free Agency thing everyone is talking about? Wait, you can do that!?!?!” Great at drafting and developing but you can’t build a championship team only on the draft, need to use all outlets available to you. Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come.
GO PACK GO!!

I wish I could wish him well with his new team, but Julius is the enemy now. Mr. Peppers, congratulations on being a part of one of the worst defenses in Chicago Bears history. I hope you bring the same high level of play to the peckers.

as a Bears fan, I hate this. Julius Peppers was too expensive for the Bears to keep and they made the right move in cutting him. That said, Peppers may have had a down year but the dude can still play and was VERY disruptive at times for the Bears last year. When you’re not getting any type of pass rush from anywhere else on the line, it’s very easy to focus on taking a guy like Peppers out of the action as teams did to Chicago last year. I do not like the idea of Clay Matthews and Peppers lined up in tandem over Jordan Mills or even Bushrod with Cutler in their sights. Smart, low risk-high reward move by Green Bay. Well played.

As a Bears fan I’m not excited about seeing Julius Peppers line up against us. He will be much fresher since he will be part of a rotation and not playing every single down.
I think he will be effective and will be worth the money. It sucks that it had to be the Packers. I wanted Julius on the Bears or out of the division.

This is right up there with the Raji and Hawk signings…10 million possible for Peppers?? Really?

The “foray into free agency” for Green Bay is resigning the unproductive cogs of a 31st ranked defense, then adding a 35 year old, who will probably play part time? The NFC North left tackles (sans Bhatahri whom Peppers owned) are pretty happy about this…

You can’t blame the Packers though, they don’t do this so called Free Agency thing very often. After this dollar dump will have to continue their quest for excellence in the 2014 post draft UDFA market to patch the other massive holes in this team.

Aaron Rodgers legs have to be getting very tired of carrying this whole team year after year…

It’s not a bad move for anyone. The Bears were able to sign two DE’s who are in their prime which made an aging and mostly ineffective Peppers expendable. I love Peppers, but he’s on the downside of his career and his production is in steep decline.

That said, Peppers instantly becomes the best defensive player on the woeful Packers defense. You can’t argue with TT for signing him, even at 34 years old and a shell of his former self, Julius Peppers is a man among boys in Green Bay.

yes he’s old in football years and his productivity is slowing down, however thompson signed someone to fill a hole. people are chatting like the packers are expecting peppers to play every down, he may not have a lot left but him and cm3 on the same side rushing the passer. sounds like the qb’s crying to me.

For those trolls saying Peppers will be playing a new position or out of position, you don’t know what you are talking about.

The Packers prefer to dress 8 to 9 DL and rotate them according to the run/pass. Peppers is being brought in on the pass downs, he can play both, but in limited snaps, he will be part of the pass defense package.

The ideal DE in a 3-4 is a tall, pass rushing monster, does that sound familar? Jones is 6’4″, Peppers is 6’6″, and Jolly (if he comes back ) is 6″4″ so the Packers are building it the way it should be one. Looking at it another way, the Packers are less than $8 mil for a true starter, the Vikings are playing $10 mil for a guy who started a total of one game, which team is smarter, the Divisional winner or the last place team?

whatjusthappen: do u even think before you speak… no matter how you look at this deal it reeks of respiration and its not in the benefit of the pack to have a de/lb at 34 with a bad foot. There wasn’t much of a market for pep… so spin it anyway you want… but griffin as a part time player playing some lb an behind a top 5 de had 1.5 less sacks in a lil less then half the snaps of pep last year… pep is no longer a started…griffen is 26-27 an a starter… btw your first place team won 8 games last year an couldn’t beat Vikings at home…. great team

Wow. That signing went from an okay deal that could work to a WTF deal. Peppers all his career has gotten by on physical ability which now is slowly eroding. He still can be a good situational threat when Packers switch to a 4-3 and the Packers draft and develop as good as anyone, leaving them more money to spend then they need, but that money could have been used to bring back James Jones for 2years, and still gotten a very good up and coming DE with money left over.